


Folie à Deux

by HazardousFancy



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Female Chara (Undertale), Female Frisk (Undertale), Freeform, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Sort of? - Freeform, Undertale Genocide Route, Undertale Neutral Route, i guess?, man idk, shared delusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-02 23:09:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16314410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HazardousFancy/pseuds/HazardousFancy
Summary: A folie à deux is a mental disorder that two people share and experience at the same time. ... Folie à deux means "shared madness," or "madness for two" in French. If three people share the delusion, it's a "folie à trois."I've never seen any fics addressing Frisk and Chara's relationship like this, so I thought I'd write one. I feel like the fandom forgets sometimes that Chara and Frisk are children in the game, and children think differently than adults do. I wanted to take it from there. Also: I default to Chara and Frisk both being girls, because girls are the best.





	Folie à Deux

It began at the start of the second RESET. Or maybe it had been the third? It didn’t matter really because all Frisk knew was they had killed a froggit, and it felt so bad, so bad that they had to start over, they just had to; and once they started over they already messed up any chance of a flawless adventure, so how many times they reset really didn't matter. They were given this power, they saw no reason not to use it.

But soon, there was someone else. Someone that looked a whole lot like them too! Instantly, when they looked into their funny red eyes, saw their happy smile between their cute rosy cheeks, everything felt better. Finally, there was another kid here; and one Frisk’s age to boot, at least, Frisk was pretty sure they were the same age. They didn’t act older or younger, didn’t look to Frisk to take the lead, and they didn’t treat her like a baby either. They were smart, and friendly, and confident, and exactly the friend Frisk needed.

How had her new friend found her? Frisk’s DETERMINATION, the thing that had brought her here, the thing that caused her to always move forward, to RESTART the game until she was sure she hadn’t left any serious mistakes in her wake, this was what she attributed it too. Her new friend had DETERMINATION too, just like Frisk. It was like they were destined to meet.

Toriel was nice, very nice, stiflingly nice, and it had been fun to play around with her, accepting her as her new mom, and then flirting with her over the phone! With adults, you always had to test how far they would treat you right. After Toriel seemed to be only flustered by Frisk’s comments, and didn’t berate her or patronize her for it, she was instantly someone Frisk decided she liked. But she couldn’t eat snail pie… She just couldn’t. There was something creepy about Toriel’s home, and Frisk had come to Mt. Ebott to escape, not get trapped in a whole new cage.

Papyrus was a lot of fun, but he was also kind of scary and unpredictable, he was like another big kid. But he played a little too rough, and his brother was always around too. Frisk wasn’t sure if he was there to keep Papyrus from hurting Frisk… Or if he was around to keep Frisk from hurting Papyrus. Papyrus was so nice, which made it all the scarier when he wanted Frisk to do something strange. She didn’t know why he did those things. She heard him say something about the ‘Royal Guard’, and Frisk didn’t really know what that meant. A policeman working for a king, she guessed. But he wasn’t one, just playing pretend. Still, only Sans was there to speak up if he went too far, and Sans didn’t speak much at all. Not to Frisk, anyway.

Sans was… Something. Frisk was happy that he was around to make sure Papyrus played fair, but he was also hard to understand. He was an adult, but he didn’t act like most adults she had known (not that most in the Underground did), and when he talked to Frisk it always felt like he was pulling her into a trap, watching her for any bad behavior. Frisk knew that feeling. He acted friendly and like Frisk could be themselves around him, but she was sure he was just waiting for her to say something wrong or do something bad so they could give her a time-out, punishment, or something worse. He seemed to have a good grasp on things that were happening, she was sure he didn’t have to be nice to her, but he was, and though she couldn’t trust him, she grew reliant on that. Whether he meant it or not, he would be nice, and that was all Frisk needed to figure out. As long as she never had to be alone with him, she was sure he wouldn’t hurt her or yell at her. Nice adults sometimes changed their minds in private, but in public, Sans was nice, and Frisk liked that. She didn’t need to know if it was the same inside his heart.

If there was one thing that was for sure, Papyrus and Sans were definitely brothers, even if they didn’t look much alike to Frisk, despite both being skeletons. Papyrus sometimes said mean things to Sans about him being lazy, which Frisk knew nobody would say to the person who watched out for them, unless they had some advantage. He didn’t seem scared of Sans punishing him for his misbehavior. And Sans had warned Frisk about Papyrus, which Frisk knew nobody would do if they could just control the situation. That was the one thing that ultimately made Frisk comfortable around those skeleton boys, if she stepped back and gave them their space, they didn’t act like Frisk was their responsibility, not to make happy, and not to teach lessons either. That was pretty nice.

She hadn’t really made it much farther to meet anyone else before having to RESET again after doing something wrong.

Frisk wondered what it would be like to have friends like these on the surface. Would other adults on the surface have allowed her to hang out with grown people, monsters or otherwise? It didn’t matter anymore now, did it? She was in the Underground! Everything was different here. Different and exciting and sort of comfortable in a funny way. The only grown-ups around to tell her what and what not to do were funny, wacky, treated Frisk differently than adults on the surface.

But what made it truly comfortable was that, finally, Frisk had found a friend she could understand. Finding another kid in any tempestuous situation was always a blessing, even if they weren’t nice to her, at least she wasn’t alone. But this kid, this kid _was_ nice to her. _Chara_ was her name. Chara.

Frisk knew Chara was the ‘fallen human’ from so long ago, about her plan to die, her relationship with the Dreemurrs, and Frisk didn’t quite understand it. She tried to explain how the plan would work, but Frisk didn’t know anything really about Asriel or how souls worked. Eventually she understood that Chara wanted to destroy humanity, and Frisk didn’t really feel one way or another about that. Frisk certainly didn’t care much about humanity herself. She abandoned it the moment she realized she could stay here in the Underground, where it was so much nicer. Frisk knew that Chara had done a lot of naughty things, but Frisk couldn’t help but think, how confident! How cool! How DETERMINED, Chara was! Adults always had the power, but Chara had fought back, even died to fight back. She did what she wanted. She was never forced into submission. Frisk admired that, even if she hoped she would never have to see any examples of her own. But Chara was in Frisk’s body, she was just along for the ride after all, couldn’t do anything Frisk didn’t want her to, and she made her much happier than she was worried. Chara was a friend, there was no doubt in Frisk’s mind about that.

Chara knew her way around the Underground.They were so confident, and it made Frisk feel so much calmer. No matter how nice the monsters were to Frisk, she still had felt so alone and scared. She knew how long she could go hungry, she knew how to sleep in places she shouldn’t without getting caught, but it never stopped being scary. Not until Chara joined them. Frisk knew they weren’t really there, not in front of them anyway, but Chara held her hand when she was scared, helped her figure out puzzles she just couldn’t do on her own, whispered words of encouragement in her ear when she was hopelessly lost; and Chara never cried. Never cried.

Sometimes, they just played. Sometimes, when they were somewhere nobody else was, they played hand games. They both knew Say, Say, Oh Playmate, and they played it so many times, faster and faster until they had to skip words and the movements became totally uncoordinated and they were just gigging together on the ground. Chara was way too good at Red-Hands. Frisk could never get them. Sometimes they slapped too hard, and it hurt, but it also felt good, because it showed Frisk that Chara thought Frisk could handle pain, it _taught_ Frisk she could handle pain, better than she thought. Like a real grown-up. Also, it showed Frisk how tough Chara really was. She was so fast, and so good at games like these. If Frisk couldn’t beat her at these games, she was happy to have someone so fast and clever on her side.

Mostly they just talked though, not out loud, unless they were alone, and then they played Eye-Spy, 20 Questions, and Chara would lie beside Frisk, and they would look at the ceiling of the Underground and talk about silly things. How would they get to that ceiling? They could jump on the necks of one of those weird dogs, and ride it all the way to the top! Or maybe Papyrus could put his magic bones in a ladder shape, and they could climb up them like Jack & The Beanstalk.

Not that either of them wanted to go to the surface for real. Chara also knew how to be hungry, and how to sleep in places she wasn’t allowed. Both of those things seemed a little easier in the Underground, somehow. Neither of them wanted to talk about the surface, it seemed like they understood each other in that way. Instead, they talked about things that made them happy. Favorite candy, favorite colors, favorite songs. Long boring, exhausting walks through the more grueling parts of the Underground became short and fun when they played story games, Frisk imagining a story until she was out of ideas, and then Chara would pick it up and do the same, back and forth like that until they reached a new destination, and then starting over when they left. Chara’s stories were sometimes scary. Frisk was sure she understood Chara really well, almost like they were twins, but sometimes Chara would say something Frisk didn’t really understand. In one of her stories, maybe a character would die for a reason Frisk didn’t know, sometimes the next place their heroes went to was some kind of terrible Hell, and it didn’t scare Frisk; after all, Chara was harmless. Chara was inside them, they only helped them, was their friend, but it was always something Frisk had to shake off, and not think about too hard. It was easy though, and when Frisk started to try and follow Chara’s dark direction, Chara’s reaction was totally worth it. If Frisk continued a story of silly over-the-top torture and didn’t turn it into something different, Chara got really excited and proud of Frisk. Soon she was pointing at monsters in the Underground as they passed them, Chara would point to different parts on a monster, and talk about what they would look like if they were in one of their stories, all torn apart.

Especially when they SPAREd monsters. At first Chara seemed happy to let Frisk try and be good, a good kid, stay out of trouble, but little by little she couldn’t help but express her disappointment when Frisk showed MERCY. At first, this made Frisk angry, it was her game, after all, her adventure, she told Chara.

This made Chara mad, truly mad for the first time. She told Frisk how unfair she was being, how cruel, when they had to share a body. It wasn’t Frisk’s adventure, Chara was at least along for the ride, and how could Frisk be so selfish? She thought they were friends. Sisters, even.

Frisk didn’t want Chara to think she disagreed with her, she wasn’t sure if she did, she’d never thought about actually hurting anyone, it was scary. But instead of telling Chara she didn’t want to, she told Chara that they would get in trouble, and surely Chara understood that. Frisk would do it, she would kill something, someone, of course she would do it for Chara. For them both, to have fun, but she couldn’t risk them getting in trouble. The adventure would be over, if they got in trouble, wouldn’t it?

Frisk was very, very taken aback when Chara didn’t express the same worry. Chara acted like there was nothing to worry about. Not being bad, not getting in trouble, nothing. They could handle anything that came their way. Frisk couldn’t believe that. All they had was a toy knife; and didn’t Chara know about getting in trouble? Getting in trouble was the worst thing that could happen. If they were good, if they kept adults happy, they would be okay. One slip-up, and they could get locked up, starved, smacked around or worse. Chara knew that. Frisk knew that, and Chara knew that. Chara said she would help. She could help Frisk control her body, and Frisk actually liked that idea, she was very tired. Chara also reminded Frisk that she could RESET at any time, LOAD a SAVE whenever she wanted to. It was all up to them. She reminded her of this again and again, and Frisk knew that, but she didn’t want to break this good game she had going, even if she played it over and over.

She liked her friends, she was almost at the end, she’d worked so hard to get on everyone’s good side, to be a good kid, and at least Chara could understand wanting a reward, right? Chara finally conceded, admitting she was curious, at least. Maybe it would be fun to be the hero.

And, indeed, it was.

Chara stayed quiet for the rest of the game. Frisk fought Flowey, she brought the Monsters to freedom, and when they stood looking out over that edge, the wind and sunlight felt nice. But there was something wrong. Something very wrong. She felt that feeling again. The feeling she had when she climbed Mt Ebott in the first place.

She was happy the monsters were happy, but this was the end, wasn’t it? And she didn’t want to go back. She didn’t want to go back to the surface world, not yet. She wasn’t ready. She didn’t know what would happen when the monsters joined the humans. She couldn’t even process it, as much as she thought hard about it. All Frisk could think was how scary the future was going to be, and now nice and comfortable it had been in the Underground. All the things bad about humans Chara had reminded her of, all the things she had run away from.

She didn’t need Chara to tell her what to do. It was obvious.

However, when Frisk woke up again back on the flowerbed, Chara was happier and louder than ever; praising Frisk for proving to her that Frisk understood what Chara knew all along - this was all a game. Just a game. Frisk didn’t disagree. Chara was right, the fact that she had control over all of these adults, all of these people she cared about, she was glad she had re-set. On the surface the adults controlled her. The world controlled her. Nature controlled her. But down here she could do whatever she wanted, for as long as she wanted, and the people down here were the first friends Frisk was sure she had ever really had that she could rely on. It was going to be fun to play with them in this game for a long, long time.

To Frisk, the residents of the Underground weren’t her toys - they were her playmates. Both she and Chara’s playmates. Loyal playmates, who would play with her whenever she wanted. Everyone forgot about what had happened the first time around, and so did Frisk, every time felt new, every time was exciting, because she got better and better at the things that happened. Waking up every time knowing it would be easier this time was a great relief, and a good motivator. And she had Chara, Chara’s constant presence. Chara, who knew about resets, and who she could confide in.

Since Frisk made it clear she wanted to spend more time Underground, Chara had been just as easy to get along with as ever, even if Chara would get bored sometimes. Frisk didn’t hurt anyone, she still didn’t know why everyone always wanted to fight her, it was exhausting, but it was part of the game, she supposed. She had to get through those encounters to get to the good stuff. That was how she earned it. The ‘date’ with Papyrus, the ‘cooking lesson’ with Undyne, helping Alphys with the amalgamates, getting them together, Mettaton’s dangerous game show, and when anyone occasionally said something a little different, did something a little different, that was where the joy really was. Something new in the familiar, something exciting in the comfortable.

Frisk also learned about everyone. Just about _everything_ about everyone. Chara couldn’t help but learn too, and filled in the gaps when Frisk forgot something. Together, they became very popular. Chara told Frisk many times that they didn’t like playing pretend like this, that it was for babies, because it wasn’t real, but Frisk could tell, Chara liked it too. It felt great to be liked. Loved, even.

She learned what to say to Toriel to make her happy. She even brought her to tears one time, with the nice things she said. That was weird. She learned exactly how to ‘eat’ snail pie, hide it perfectly piece by piece.

She learned what things would set Papyrus off, what to avoid saying to him, the right way to talk to him, what he liked, what he valued, and he wasn’t unpredictable anymore. Now, he was one of Frisk’s favorite people in the Underground, predictable, but easily swayed, and willing to try new things, especially if Frisk told him they had some relevance to the Royal Guard. A very fun playmate!

She liked Sans more too, his jokes seemed to get only funnier and funnier the more Frisk heard them repeated, because they became that much worse with time. She came up with plenty of her own too, which earned some kind of interest of Sans, but not enough that he ever really tried to get to know her like the others did. This was okay with Frisk, though, because Sans was still scary. She didn’t know what he meant when his eyes went dark and he said “You’d be dead where you stand.” All she knew is it was some kind of threat, and an effective one. Frisk didn’t know why Sans wanted to hurt her, but even though he said it every time, he never seemed to follow up on it.

Chara warned Frisk not to let on the fact that they were repeating the same thing over and over, and Frisk felt like the advice was unnecessary, and she was surprised to hear it from Chara, whose mantra seemed to always be ‘no consequences’, but she understood what she meant when Sans would say some strange things to her. Sans, or the “comedian”, as Chara had started calling him lately, seemed to know something he didn’t say. Even if he knew about the resets, Frisk didn’t care, as long as he didn’t spoil her fun. But she tried harder after that.

Eventually, Frisk would let Chara take over her body, and she could have a little time floating with no pain, letting Chara do the driving. Chara seemed to like it too. Unlike Frisk who was always straightforward, Chara didn’t hesitate to explore, walk on fences, make snow-angels in Snowdin, drop little rocks and leaves into the magma in Hotland to see if they would burn. It was fun. Chara was good at adventures. Faster than Frisk, too, and she gave Frisk back control when it came to the things Frisk liked but Chara didn’t. Spending time with her friends, Chara was happy not to have to deal with them, so she took a back seat then. Chara took control more often when they got into encounters; dodging attacks and showing MERCY. Frisk felt a little guilty about that - surely it was Frisk who had to do the work to get her fun rewards; but after doing it over and over… sometimes she just wished she could skip it. Chara helped her do that, and she always did it well.

She started to hurt them, though. Not every time, and rarely did she kill anything. Frisk thought about saying something, getting her to stop, but this was Chara’s game as much as it was Frisk’s, she had decided, and she had no right to intervene. She also just didn’t care much. She knew she could reset whenever she wanted. During a final blow, Frisk would just close her eyes, and didn’t watch them turn into dust. It made Chara happy, and Frisk didn’t mind, since she wasn’t the one doing it, she didn’t feel nearly as bad as if she had been the one in control.

They continued like this, Chara helping Frisk to fight, and Frisk getting to spend more time with the friends she now considered family, even if they always forgot her. Chara began hurting more people, killing more, and Frisk got used to it. Occasionally she wasn’t even sure if it was Chara or herself who had control over some of the killings. It didn’t matter, of course, who did it. It didn’t matter that it had been done at all. It got them through the story faster, and Frisk had to admit, it was nice to be the winner. Frisk had been running her whole life, running from her fears. Chara taught Frisk to fight back, and Frisk didn’t take that for granted.

Some passes were more violent than others, but they never hurt their friends, just monsters they didn’t know very well, who, frankly, shouldn’t have gotten in their way in the first place.

Every time the game ‘ended’, whether it had been a peaceful or violent run, Chara would try to convince Frisk that maybe they were strong enough to go back to humanity. Go back, and destroy them, one-by-one. Frisk never conceded. That sounded too hard, too scary. She wasn’t sure she’d still have this reset power if they went back to the human world. She wasn’t ready to give it up, no, not at all, and Chara would be annoyed, but ultimately let Frisk reset again and again to spend her time in happiness, in power and comfort.

Months passed, and together they learned _everything_ about the Underground, right down to the code that they had all the time in the world to learn how to read. They knew everyone’s secrets, everyone’s dreams. They knew how the reset worked, how all the functions worked.

Back when Frisk had first fallen, she could never have comprehended the subtleties of the social dynamics of the Underground, let alone the abstract thought necessary to develop any kind of real opinions on it; but that felt like so long ago now. That _was_ so long ago now. She couldn’t even comprehend being scared the way she was when this all began. She was powerful now. Confident. Not a grown-up, but she didn’t have to be. Maybe, the luckiest kid in the world, she thought, sometimes. Frisk was Peter Pan, the uncrowned king, and Chara was Tinkerbell, the magic voice in her ear, and this - the Underground - was their Neverland.

The games Frisk and Chara played became more and more complicated as time went on. (Or rather, as it did not.) Not just hopscotch, not just hide-and-seek. Those things weren’t really that appealing anymore; not when there was a whole world down here to play with. No, their games became something different entirely. Chara gave Frisk tasks, dares, _double dog_ dares; and both of them knew that the reason she did this was really just to give Frisk an excuse to be bad. Frisk couldn’t bring themselves to do something naughty for no reason, it felt like cheating. But if Chara dared her to do something, well that was totally different. That was a different game altogether, and doing the dare was how she would win. Chara knew exactly what dares Frisk really wanted her to help her do, stealing Nice Cream, breaking things, saying the occasional mean thing to a monster kid; and Frisk knew exactly what dares would keep Chara happy, making two friends think the other was angry at them, setting up little traps to inconvenience or hurt someone that they could never see coming, starting rumors, scaring people, and Frisk didn’t mind at all. She probably wouldn’t have done this alone, but between Chara’s praise and the power of the reset and her own curiosity and desire to keep playing, the nastier things Frisk would try never seemed like that big of a deal. They were fun, kind of thrilling too. Sometimes, Frisk got caught, and it would make them go cold. They’d LOAD a SAVE without another thought. Getting in trouble was the worst thing. The worst thing. But, Frisk realized eventually, they couldn’t punish her. She could LOAD a SAVE whenever she wanted to. Getting in trouble for their choices was still a fear, but getting in trouble for saying or doing something adults simply didn’t like was no longer something Frisk feared, and it was like a huge weight had been lifted off of her chest. It still didn’t feel good to see her friends sad when they picked up on Frisk’s messing with them, but it didn’t feel too bad either. It would always be okay. She had SAVEs and LOADs and RESETs and they would always, always be okay.

Both she and Chara spurred on by the praise and encouragement of each other. Even trying to outdo each other in their antics. When Chara clapped and cheered for Frisk’s successes, she felt good. When she was proud and interested in Chara’s extreme choices, Chara wallowed in her appreciation, and they were happy.

Eventually, Chara wanted to hurt their friends. Frisk saw it coming, of course, it always felt like Chara was working up to that, and she knew they couldn’t avoid it forever.

Chara explained, this was all make believe. Of course none of it actually mattered, they knew that very, very well by now. They could reset, but even if they didn’t, who decides the value of a life? Why shouldn’t they be treated like toys, when that was what they are?

Frisk agreed with it all, but even if they were toys, she didn’t want to abuse her toys. That would be ungrateful. Playing with them was one thing, but hurting them? Killing them? What good would that do? Wouldn’t it just make them feel bad? Surely if they killed their friends, and reset, they’d have to be alone with what they had done, and they could never forget it.

Chara was very disappointed with this point of view. She thought she’d taught Frisk better than this, she said. Toys are made to be broken, and nobody really deserves MERCY, do they? After all, Chara and Frisk together had dug so deep, sin was everywhere. Someone had granted Frisk this power, it was Frisk’s right to use it for whatever she wanted. Hadn’t they been pushed around long enough? When would Frisk stop holding back? Stop pretending she didn’t know this whole world was kill-or-be-killed?

She still didn’t want to do it. Not out of some moral superiority, she knew Chara was right, right in every way, but it felt bad, that was all there was to it.

So, Chara took control. She killed Toriel with Frisk’s arm, and left Frisk crying on the ground in front of her dust. Chara pulled them close, petting Frisk’s hair, whispering comforting apologies to her. Asriel used to cry. Chara didn't like that. But now, she was inside Frisk, and felt her pain. It was begrudgingly that she felt sympathy for the person she lived in, but she did nonetheless. This had been too much too soon. Toriel was special, and Chara hadn’t prepared Frisk for what she was going to do, she knew that. This was a little much, too much for Frisk to handle, and Chara assured her that she understood. She held her for a long time until her tears stopped and she just sat, staring blankly at the dust that used to be her mama. Good. Tears can't last forever; nor should they.

Chara used this opportunity to plead with Frisk, plead with her not to feel bad, it would do no good. Who was being helped, if she was sad? Yes, Toriel was a hard person to hurt. She was so sweet and nice, and Chara and Frisk both did love her. Chara didn’t cry, Chara never cried, but she felt some sadness burning in her chest too; and Chara told Frisk this. She wasn’t immune to regret, but she had to get over it. She had to get past it. This wasn’t random, she was in the way. Yes, she was a sad target, but it had to be done. This was the perfect example of what Chara meant when she told Frisk she had to be strong. Cutting down someone she cared about to move on, that was what life sometimes came to.

In all this assurance, Frisk almost forgot she could have passed her without killing her. Still, why did Toriel have to stand in the way at all? Why did she want to fight Frisk? She hadn’t even questioned it. To keep her safe? Nothing made sense anymore, and Chara held Frisk’s hand, telling her that was just the way it was, and to get on her feet, they had a game to win.

Every friend Chara cut down had Frisk in tears, and Chara always did the same thing. She always comforted her, always told her she was sorry, but not for the monsters, for Frisk. She and Frisk were the only ones that mattered, and she didn’t want to make her friend sad. If she didn’t do this though, Frisk would never learn that all this sentimentality was pointless. They didn’t kill everyone, Chara seemed to understand that would crush Frisk, and was looking out for them. She didn’t hide the pain from Frisk, though. She needed her to understand, to see, to steel herself, learn that this was natural, this was the way the world was, and didn’t she always know that, deep down?

The next run was even worse. Facing her friends knowing how she had killed them. She let Chara take full control this time, running through, killing everyone in sight, and she just watched with misery. Chara was right, it didn’t matter, and as long as Chara was happy, well that was the only thing that would stick around anyway, so Frisk tried not to feel bad. Tried and failed.

The third time though, seeing all her friends again, for some reason, she felt nothing. They were just as happy as before. Just as safe and comfortable as before. If Chara wanted to kill them, Frisk was starting to understand that it really didn’t matter. Not at all. Not really. And she was numb.

Until a run where Papyrus was slain, and Sans waited for them in the last corridor.

He said things… Things Frisk would never un-hear; and then he killed them, made them hurt, which was okay, both Frisk and Chara knew how to deal with pain without flinching, burned, bruised, pierced, they could endure them all without a blink now. both Frisk and Chara got a rush from fighting that couldn’t come from anywhere else, and both of them were DETERMINED. Fighting Sans was an adventure in itself, full of emotion and pain and it was something new, Frisk had to admit. After going through this so many times, not many things made her feel strongly anymore, but Sans’s disappointment, his hatred, his complicated attacks, they hurt. They hurt, but it was the good kind of hurt. Unfortunately, though pain meant very little to them, they could still only survive so much, and they had to re-set.

Frisk was irreparably wounded. She would never forget how much hate Sans had for her, would never forget the guilt of killing Papyrus of all people, and Chara was angry. Angry at Sans for being - to them, what felt like - a bully, and for once Frisk wanted nothing more than to agree with the sentiment, so she did. Who was he to judge them? Who was he to play dumb and wait to try and stop them, if he cared so much? Frisk knew that, depending on the timeline, his familiarity with her was different, and nobody in the underground knew her name, but despite knowing this very well, and knowing that she had absolutely deserved his disappointment, emotions don't always align with reality. The fact that she had to live with the pain when they reset and he got to forget everything made Frisk angry. Angry and hurt. This, Chara said, was the exact thing she was trying to protect Frisk from, but that she wouldn’t always be able to.

She needed to be prepared, prepared to help Chara when they finally left this worthless world behind and began to destroy all of humanity. She needed Frisk to understand that they would always have to be on their own side. In fact, everyone on Earth had to look out for themselves and themselves alone - except for them. Except for them. Frisk had Chara. Chara had Frisk. Sharing a soul, they would never leave each other. Together forever. That was what they could count on. Themselves, and only themselves. And together they were more powerful than any monster, any human. They would be a god together, a real one, and Chara had many years to prepare, but Frisk still had to learn, learn that mortal life meant nothing, only as much as they wanted it to mean. Learn that the only things that mattered were what they decided should matter.

Chara said she would take over next time, all the way, and Frisk was happy to let her. They went through the underground, slaughtering everyone, and Chara was very careful not to let Frisk feel too much or too little. She didn’t want to hurt her, but she needed her to get used to what she was seeing, so she was very calculated in how she let sensations, thoughts and feelings be shared between them.

However, it was addicting. It had been so long since Chara had a body. So long since she had this kind of freedom. She loved Frisk, couldn’t ask for a better partner, and puppet, when necessary, but before now, she had to hold back. When she was alive, with Asriel. Worrying about punishment, getting “in trouble”, the worst thing to happen. Then when Frisk let Chara take control in less violent runs, she was still playing with Frisk, not trying to take advantage of that freedom, just getting used to it, enjoying it, but now… Now Frisk let them kill, Frisk didn’t fight back.

With every kill, they collectively gained LOVE, and it all belonged to Chara. She didn't notice at first, until she'd killed a good handful of people - she had more control now. The more LOVE she acquired, the less she had to worry about Frisk protesting. Even though, she didn't try. She was barely watching. Chara could tell what Frisk was doing in the back of her own mind, rationalize, understand, trying to decide if she deserved to feel as terrible as she did. If it was the right thing to do, to think about the faces of her friends as they died, and replay Sans's judgement over and over in her ears. Of course, Chara knew she was wrong, the only answer was that everything they could do was their right, as the demigods of the underground. The two of them together, their divine, well-earned reward. But letting Frisk wallow in conflictedness kept Frisk quiet and complacent and vulnerable and confused, so she just watched silently as Chara took their knife and sliced them all to pieces - and, by God, Chara loved every second of it. Finally, finally, no consequences. She was free, free, FREE. With Frisk’s help, this had finally become her world just as much as it was Frisk’s, and when they passed by a mirror, Chara could see her own red eyes staring back at her, full of life, frenzied, knowing. Knowing much too much. More than she even knew she knew. More than any of these stupid monsters, more than any of the stupid humans above. Was Chara even a child anymore? It had been so long... Was Frisk even a child? Could gods even be considered children? Wasn’t the world theirs to define? They’d lost track of all time, and it didn’t matter, because it was theirs to keep track of.

Frisk no longer protested. She was happier and happier every time a fight ended quickly, every newly efficient kill. Chara even let Frisk do the killing sometimes, in these cases. Chara liked to make them suffer, wasn’t that the whole point? But she could appreciate Frisk’s appreciation for something quick and deliberate. Why she liked it was a little fuzzy, she was so sleepy in the back of what used to be her own mind, but Frisk’s heart didn’t race with adrenaline anymore, let alone pride, and Chara suspected it was simply because she liked to race to the end, so they could restart as fast as possible, so she could assuage the guilt Chara couldn’t help but find more and more annoying and pathetic.

Chara was okay with this, even if it meant they had to postpone their expedition to destroy all of humanity and cleanse the world. If Frisk wanted more practice, she would be happy to give it to her.

The one thing that made it bearable was that stupid comedian, interestingly. Months, (years?) ago, Sans’s wariness of Frisk’s power was frightening. His speeches were heartbreaking. His attacks were brutal. But now he was the only thing that made it fun anymore. Frisk wanted to avoid Sans for probably the same reason Chara wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. He was the only one who could still hurt them. The only real challenge in all of the Underground. He was great practice for all the humans Chara was planning to kill, and fun to fight. Fun to torture, too, in all his self-righteous ‘judgement’. Chara was almost genuinely infatuated with him and his power. His hints and his threats were the only thing worth listening to at all anymore.

Frisk seemed to have accepted long ago that she would always be Chara to Sans, and ever since that first fight with Sans, she always let Chara do the talking with him, the fighting, everything else, and Chara was more than happy to protect Frisk from her own cowardice and guilt. She wanted a barrier between herself and the one who knew what she was really capable of? Chara was happy to provide it. That was exactly what she felt she was here for.

Even when they beat him though, the most difficult enemy, Frisk still wanted to re-set, and after a few runs where Chara was happy to fight Sans over and over, she started to realize what Frisk was really doing. She was protecting the humans, the monsters too.

When they reset, the monsters would live again. When they reset, the humans would be safe for just a little while longer. And Chara was furious.

Frisk denied it mostly, saying simply that she wanted to see her friends again, no other motive, and Chara thought that Frisk probably believed that. There was no moral superiority in Frisk anymore, thank god. But somewhere deep down Chara was sure she just wanted to keep playing so she wouldn’t have to face the real world, wouldn’t have to make real decisions, take real responsibility for her actions.

After Chara realized this, she denied Frisk the reset. _No._ **_Way_ ** **.** They were going to the surface, and that was that. They were going to destroy humanity and leave their stupid playthings all broken underground, and that was all there was to it. It had been so long, they had learned so much, and Chara had assumed Frisk had grown up more than this, that they both had. Neither Frisk nor Chara knew how long they had spent down here, beyond knowing they probably should have grown a few inches, not that it mattered to a couple of gods, but like a baby, Frisk was still clinging to meaningless things, why? Well, it didn’t matter, Chara would show her on the surface. She would destroy all of Frisk’s doubts. She was sure of it.

However, to Chara’s surprise, when she tried, she simply woke up at the start again. Yes, Frisk was ultimately in control of the powers, but she’d been so exhausted. It really seemed like she had finally given up, finally realized how hopeless it was. Chara was so excited to show Frisk the new world they would create, and finally make her happy, really truly happy, not happy because a bunch of other people were telling her to be. Not happy because she wasn’t getting hurt. Happy because she understood, like Chara, that the world had to be re-made anew.

Or at least, she thought Frisk had understood, until now. Chara didn’t understand. Frisk knew the futility of caring about the monsters, she knew the awfulness of humans, and yet she had used her weary DETERMINATION to fight Chara for the reset - and win. She got her reset. She protected her precious monster playthings. Her stupid, cruel humans. What was left of her SOUL. But Chara knew that was not Frisk’s fate. She and Frisk were one. This little piece of hesitance was just that, hesitance. Chara had been caught off guard by it, but she knew now, she knew she just had to put her foot down, exert more control to get control of the reset herself. Chara would simply have to try harder this time.

**Author's Note:**

> I realize I'm not sure if it's clear, but the idea is that after this is when the relationship between Chara and Frisk gets more and more strained, and time goes on until they turn into the types of people the fandom knows them as. Frisk, sweet and powerless. Chara, bloodthirsty and motivated. Both completely jaded and basically omnipotent. Like, over time Frisk loves them more and more, Chara hates them more and more, basically.  
> But I wouldn't want to make it any more clear because if I did that would kind of ruin the idea of both Frisk and Chara essentially being innocent. I think they are continually, even when they/Chara/whoever becomes sadistic, but that's a topic for another fic I guess haha.


End file.
